I crash cool my buckets to about 37 degrees. This compacts the yeast into a nice firm cake that is pretty solid. When I go to rack to a keg, I spray the spigot with starsan a couple times over a 3 minute period. It drains into my gray Rubbermaid Bus Pan below. After it is sanitized, I pull the airlock, then gently open the spigot and draw off about 2 ounces. The yeast resting in the spigot comes out, then the rest is clear. I then pull off a hydrometer jar sample before connecting a short length of sanitized 3/8" silicone hose. I lower the hose into the keg before pushing it on to the spigot. It is cut to fit right to the bottom and because it is silicone, it does not curl. The keg has been purged with CO2, so splashing inside is not an oxidation risk.

I do all my beers this way and it has worked very well for me. Beers are clear and tasty. The only time I use my Auto Siphon is for my Apfelwein which is in Better Bottles.

Ah, crash cooling.

Have you ever done it without crash cooling? Reason I ask is because I was thinking of using this method and going right to bottles.

Wait, Im an idiot. I forgot about priming. I would still need to go to another bottling bucket....but still this would be easier than siphoning. And the second bottling bucket would have more room at the bottom for any sludge that gets transferred.